Through my years of seeing and listening to Phish, I've always enjoyed hearing songs teased in the middle of what the band was playing. The 2nd Edition of The Phish Companion took this information and put it to print, resulting in a four page Teases Chart. As I compiled my collection of Phish shows, I would actively seek out certain versions of songs to hear specific teases - something that enriched my experience of exploring the band's vast musical history. Upon joining the Phish.Net crew in 2009 and becoming involved in the setlist team, I would constantly add new teases to the database, partially from my own listening finds and often from Phish.Net user submissions.

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The following foreword to the second edition of The Phish Companion was written by Jane Ambrose, Trey's music teacher at the University of Vermont.

I read in the paper this morning that Phish had the second largest box office gross per city in North America. Bon Jovi was first, but the average ticket price was so much higher, that without an adjustment, Phish would no doubt have been number one. So I thought again why it might be that this band that started here at our little University was so popular. After all, 70,000 people made their way to The Great Went in Limestone, Maine, not exactly one of the population centers of the Northeast. Recently I watched the DVD of Bittersweet Motel and was struck by the absolute joy of the audience-joy in each others’ company and joy communicated by the music of Phish. Regardless of their enormous success, the guys haven’t changed very much. I love the picture on the cover of the March, 2003 Rolling Stone - Phish on ice skates, dressed like drag queens, with my friend Trey in a tutu over his jeans and with a bare chest. Happy people make other people happy.

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It's time for the 88th installment of the Mystery Jam Monday series here at Phish.net. As usual, we will be playing for a free MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Tuesday Hint: No hint needed this week...

Wednesday Answer: Pauly7917 gets his fifth win with the 11/14/94 "Bowie." Congrats. The Blog will be back on Monday with another Mystery Jam.

In August 2000, Jay Kahn (RIP) and Ellis Godard interviewed Aaron Wolfe. The following exerpts were published in the first edition of The Phish Companion.

EG & JK: What do you remember most about Princeton Day School and the folks you went to school with?

Aaron Wolfe: Princeton was a pretty quiet, homogeneous place. But even then we knew that the suburbs created the best rock and roll. That's why we all took up the air guitar with such dedication.

Tom and I formed an air guitar band called, unbelievably, "A Dot Tom" – decades before the Internet and the assault of the "dot.coms." The songs were mostly adaptations of other people's songs. Neil Young's “Cinnamon Girl” was remade – without reason whatsoever – as “Michaelson Girl.” Some were inspired by things we saw outside the windows of our Latin class.

EG & JK: What's your first memory of Tom Marshall?

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The Phish.net API is a system for using Phish.net data across the internet on other websites or in mobile apps. There are several dozen websites that use the Phish.net API, sites like Phishvids, where the data is all served up by the Phish.net setlists database. Today, I'm excited to announce some changes to the Phish.net API. Read on for the details.

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Welcome to the Late Edition of Mystery Jam Monday here at Phish.net. As usual, we will be playing for a free MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Wednesday Answer: Congrats to TheDeputy for nailing down the 7/13/03 "Seven Below," a/k/a pure awesomeness. The Blog will be back on Monday with another Mystery Jam...

Ever wondered about the background of “YEMblog,” perhaps the most widely used Phish blog on the web? I did, and I asked Scott Bernstein (“SB”), the man behind the site, to chat about it and he graciously obliged:

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Welcome to the 86th Mystery Jam Monday here at Phish.net. As usual, we will be playing for a free MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Wednesday Answer: Squalie takes it this week with the 8/16/93 "Weekapaug." To the extent anyone out there hasn't heard this whole show, by all means, do so immediately. And then work in both directions until you've experienced the full majesty of August '93 from Tampa to Berkeley. The Blog will be back on Monday with another Mystery Jam.

The Pittburgh Symphony Orchestra sent the following email with important information for ticket-holders to Tuesday's performance by Trey Anastasio & PSO. Please take a second to check it out if you are attending!

We are looking forward to an amazing evening of music on Tuesday, February 14 at 7:30pm, as Trey joins the PSO at Heinz Hall. We encourage you to use this email as a guide if you are new to a classical music concert, Heinz Hall, or the Cultural District of Pittsburgh. Should you have a question that is not answered here, please refer to the FAQ page on our website.

PRE-CONCERT MUSIC! Arrive early, at 6:30pm, for live bluegrass in the Grand Lobby of Heinz Hall with Pittsburgh's Shelf Life String Band. Free to all ticket holders.

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Trey Anastasio kicks-off his sold-out Winter 2012 Orchestral Tour tonight at Symphony Hall in Atlanta with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Scott Dunn conducting. The tour also includes performances with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on February 14, the Colorado Symphony on February 28, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic on March 10.

Anastasio has a rich history of orchestral performances spanning over a decade. Anastasio made his orchestral debut with the Vermont Youth Orchestra on February 2, 2001 in Troy, NY (reprised two nights later at The Flynn Theatre in Burlington), with Troy Peters conducting. This performance included two compositions by Trey’s mentor, the late Ernie Stires, “Chat Rooms” and “Samson Riffs.” The highlight of these shows was the orchestral debut of “Guyute” that reintegrated the song’s original elements that would – in the Phish repertoire – evolve as “My Friend, My Friend.” These performances were capped by renditions of “The Inlaw Josie Wales” with Trey on acoustic guitar.

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Last year, we blogged about "The Spreadsheet" and talked a bit about Kevin's tireless and unrelenting quest to provide this invaluable tool to the fan community. Working selflessly & quietly, Kevin has continued to update & add to this amazing set of links including side shows. At some point last night, Kevin reports that the spreadsheet has surpassed the absolutely incredible goal of 1,000,000 downloads. All of that in less than three years. Stunning.

To give you an idea of how many downloads are done from the spreadsheet, and how many fans use it: As of Noon today, the download count was already up to 1,001,032.

Kevin says:

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Welcome to the Mystery Jam Monday LXXXV here at Phish.net. Let's hope this doesn't suck as much as watching the Giants win the Super Bowl. As usual, we will be playing for a free MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck... unless you're a Giants fan.

Tuesday Hint: No hint needed this week.

Wednesday Answer: Congrats to Phish and Giants fan ghostboogie for guessing the 4/8/94 "It's Ice" (specifically, the "Digital Delay Loop Jam"). Gloat all you want but, any way you slice it, Eli Manning is still 0-for-85 at the Mystery Jam. See you all next Monday...